This invention relates to acoustic line arrays and more particularly to an acoustic array which uses a plurality optic hydrophones and fiber-optic bundles.
Conventional sound sensing devices using piezoelectric transducers have been used in the past. These devices include piezoelectric materials which, when subjected to variations in pressure resulting from an impinging acoustic pressure wave, generate electrical signals which can be processed using electronic devices. However, the use of such transducers in acoustic arrays imposes many problems such as the use of electronic circuitry associated with them. The electronic circuitry used for each of the transducers forming a line array are distributed along the line and require power for their operation. Furthermore, there is a limit in the reduction of size and weight of acoustic arrays using piezoelectric transducers. In addition, the operational reliability of the acoustic arrays depends upon the electronic devices used. It is thus desirable to use optic hydrophones which do not require an associated electronics and thus eliminate electric power needed to drive such electronic devices, and thus improve the operation of the acoustic arrays. Furthermore, it is desirable to have acoustic arrays which are possible to be fabricated as integral units and which have improved self-noise performance and are less expensive.